Pekanbaru ([pəkanˈbaru]) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of Riau, and a major economic centre on the eastern side of Sumatra Island with its name derived from the Malay (Indonesian) word for 'new market' ('pekan' is market and 'baru' is new). It has an area of 639.00 km2 (246.72 sq mi), with a population of 897,767 at the 2010 Census, and 983,356 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as of mid 2025 was 1,192,990 (comprising 599,452 males and 593,538 females), and was projected to be 1,228,298 as at mid 2026. It is located on the banks of the Siak River, which flows into the Strait of Malacca, Pekanbaru has direct access to the busy strait and has long been known as a trading port.
A settlement has existed on the site since the 17th century. In the late 19th century, the city was developed to serve the coffee and coal industries, and the Dutch built roads to help ship goods to Singapore and Malacca. This city has an airport called Sultan Syarif Kasim II International Airport, and a port called Sungai Duku that is located by the Siak River.
Etymology
The words "pekan" (market) and "baru" (new) in the Malay for "new market" are the source of the names Pekanbaru and Pekan Baru. Pekanbaru is used to be known as "new market" because back then Pekanbaru was a huge market which is known among the surrounding areas. It was formerly known as "Senapelan", which comes from the word "Sena", a tree that symbolises the region. Batin was the tribe chief at the time. In which around this time, this area transforms into Dusun Payung Sekaki, which is situated near the mouth of the Siak River, as it continues to grow into a new urban residential area.
According to the records kept by Imam Suhil Siak, Sultan Muhammad Ali Abdul Jalil Muazamsyah under the rule of Sultan Yahya officially established Senapelan on the 21st of Rajab, Tuesday, in the year 1204 H, corresponding to the 23rd of June 1784 AD, which was later set as the foundation date of Pekanbaru City. Senapelan was later more commonly known as Pekanbaru.
History
On 14 December 1745, the Siak region was ceded by the Sultan of Johor Sulaiman Badrul Alam Shah from the Johor Sultanate to the Dutch East India Company (VOC) under the terms of a treaty in return for Dutch help against the enemies of Johor. Siak was put under Dutch administration. The Sultan moved residence to a palace in Senapelan built in 1760.
The origin of Pekanbaru was inseparable from the existence of the Siak River as a distributing route for commodities from the Minangkabau Highlands to the Strait of Malacca. During the 18th century, the Senapelan region on the banks of the Siak River became a market for the Minangkabau merchants. Over time, the area evolved into a crowded residential area. On June 23, 1784, based on the consultative meeting of the Council of Ministers from Sultanate of Siak Sri Indrapura, consisting of four tribal leaders (datuk) of Minangkabau tribes (Pesisir, Lima Puluah, Tanah Datar and Kampar), the area was named Pekanbaru. This date was later celebrated as the anniversary of this city.
At Senapelan Sultan Abdul Jalil Shah Alamudin unsuccessfully tried to organize a major regional fair but in the early 1780s his son Sultan Muhammad Ali managed to establish the grand fair.
Dutch East Indies
Following the collapse of the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC), all company ownership of Pekanbaru was transferred to the Dutch crown. During the colonial Dutch East Indies era in the 19th and early 20th century the city remained important, especially as a major trading point: Siak river navigation conditions provide a stable relationship with shipping from the Malacca Strait. Additionally the city became a major center of the coffee industry and coal industry. The urban influence of the sultans gradually became increasingly nominal, especially after the capital of the Sultanate moved to Sri Indrapura in 1830. Actual management functions were carried out by representatives of the Dutch colonial administration, i.e., by the post of assistant-resident and controller.
Second World War
During the Second World War from February 1942 to August 1945 the city was occupied by the armed forces of Japan. In an effort to strengthen the military and logistical infrastructure in this part of Sumatra, the Japanese started the construction of a 220-kilometer-long railway, connecting Pekanbaru to the coast of Malacca Straits.
The Pekanbaru Railway was constructed under harsh conditions using forced labour. 6,500 Dutch, mostly Indo-Europeans, and British prisoners of war and over 100,000 Indonesian, mostly Javanese, forced workers called Romusha were put to work by the Japanese army. By the time the work was completed in August 1945 almost a third of the European POWs and over half of the Indonesian coolies had died.
George Duffy, one of the 15 Americans there and survivor of the sinking of the MS American Leader, noted that malaria, dysentery, pellagra, and malnutrition/beri-beri were the principal maladies compounded by overwork and mistreatment. The average age at death of the 700 prisoners of war who perished on that railway was 37 years and 3 months.
The railway was never fully utilised. Today it remains unused and in an advanced state of decay.
Indonesian era
After Indonesian independence, Pekanbaru was organized as an administrative city in 1956, and was selected to be the capital of the newly formed Riau province in 1959.
Politics
Since 1946, Pekanbaru has been governed by at least 15 mayors. The first mayor to rule this city was Datuk Wan Abdul Rahman who was elected on 17 May 1946. Currently, the Mayor of Pekanbaru is Agung Nugroho.
Reputation
Pekanbaru is one of the cleanest big cities in Indonesia. In 2011, Pekanbaru received the "Adipura" ('cleanest city') award in the category of large city for the seventh consecutive time.
Demographics
Ethnicities
Pekanbaru is the third most populous city on Sumatra Island after Medan and Palembang, with a population of 983,356 according to the official Census for 2020; the official estimate as at mid 2025 was 1,192,990. The city is highly urbanised, drawing many of its people from the neighbouring province of West Sumatra. Since many centuries ago, Pekanbaru is one of the Minangkabau migration areas outside of their home province of West Sumatra and also within Sumatra island as a whole. After World War II, the number of Minangkabau people migrating to Pekanbaru surged, nearly doubling between the years 1943 and 1961. Many Minangkabau in Pekanbaru have lived there for generations and has since assimilated into the Malay community. In addition to the Minangkabau, the Riau Malays are the second largest ethnic group in Pekanbaru, comprising a quarter of the population. The Javanese, Batak and Tionghoa (mostly from the Hainanese dialect group, with minorities coming from the Hokkien and the Cantonese dialect group) are the other main ethnic groups inhabiting Pekanbaru city. Other communities such as the Arabs and the Indians are also present in Pekanbaru.
Religions
The pluralism surrounding the city can be reflected by the variety of religions and freedom of belief among the people in Pekanbaru. Islam is the majority religion in this city, followed by Christianity (Protestantism and Catholic) as well as Buddhism and small percentage of Hinduism and Confucianism. Each religion in this city is represented by the presence of the religion's respective worship places, such as An-Nur Great Mosque and Pekanbaru Central Mosque (Masjid Raya Pekanbaru) for the Muslim community, St. Maria A Fatima Church and St. Paulus Church for the Catholic community, Huria Kristen Batak Protestan Church for the Protestant community as well as Vihara Dhamma Metta Arama, Vihara Dharma Loka and Vihara Vimala Virya for the Buddhist community and Kwan Tee Kong Bio (Vihara Satya Dharma) and Vihara Sasana Loka for Confucianist community and Pura Agung Jagatnatha for the Hindu community in Pekanbaru.
Languages
Indonesian is the official language that is spoken by the citizens of Pekanbaru. For informal use, Pekanbaru people regardless of their ethnicity also generally use Minangkabau language in their economic and daily activities, especially in the market area. In addition the local Riau Malay language and Javanese are also widely spoken because of the large population of Malays and Javanese in Pekanbaru. Hainanese as well as Riau Hokkien and Cantonese is mainly spoken by the Tionghoa community as most of the Chinese Indonesians in Pekanbaru belong to the Hainanese and Hoklo dialect groups. In fact, a minority of Chinese Indonesians in Pekanbaru also come from other regions in (mainland) Riau such as Selat Panjang, Bengkalis and Siak, along with the Chinese Indonesians who are natives of Pekanbaru itself, are also mostly from the Hainanese dialect group. Moreover, many Chinese Indonesians especially from North Sumatra, particularly from Medan as well as West Sumatra region and to a lesser extent the Riau Islands have internally migrated to Pekanbaru due to opportunities and rapid economical growth in the area since the 1990s and 2000s, in which the dialect groups of these internal migrants are from the Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese and Hakka subgroups.
Administrative districts
The city is divided into fifteen administrative districts, formerly twelve (Indonesian: kecamatan), tabulated below with their areas since the 2021 re-organisation, and their populations at the 2020 Census and according to the official estimates for mid 2025. The table also includes the locations of the district administrative centres and the number of administrative villages in each district (all classed as urban kelurahan).
Notes: (a) The former districts of Tampan (59.81 km2) and Payung Sekaki (43.24 km2) have been re-organised into these three districts since 2020, when they had 203,238 and 96,296 inhabitants respectively. (b) The former district of Tenayan Raya (171.27 km2, with 154,261 inhabitants in 2020, has been split into two new districts. (c) The former districts of Rumbai (128.85 km2) and Rumbai Pesisir (157.33 km2) have been re-organised into these three districts since 2020, when they had 78,185 and 70,488 inhabitants respectively.
Urban villages
The 83 urban villages (kelurahan) are as follows:
Climate
Pekanbaru has a tropical rainforest climate under the Köppen climate classification. As with many cities with an equatorial climate, the temperature only varies a little throughout the year. The hottest month is May with average temperature 27.6 °C (81.7 °F), while the coolest month is January with average temperature 26.4 °C (79.5 °F). The precipitation accumulation also remains constant throughout the year with no real dry season. The month with most precipitation is November with precipitation total 312 millimetres (12.3 in), while the least precipitation is July with precipitation total 123 millimetres (4.8 in).
Economy
After oil was discovered in the region in the 1930s, Pekanbaru's economy has depended heavily on oil revenues which caused the city to have the highest per capita income in Indonesia. Most of Indonesia's petroleum is produced in Riau, and much of Pekanbaru's economy is based on the petroleum industry. International oil companies, prominently Chevron from the US, as well as other Indonesian companies, have established their offices in the region. The city is connected by road to an oil refining and exporting port in Dumai. Many facilities and infrastructures such as an airport, stadiums, housing areas, schools, bridges that cross the Siak River in Pekanbaru, the roads in Rumbai and the roads to Dumai, were partially or fully financed by oil companies in the area.
Pekanbaru is really close with some of the home of mega-companies, such as PT Riau Andalan Pulp Paper, PT. Indah Kiat, PT. Chevron Pacific Indonesia, and PT Perkebunan Nusantara V and some wood-sawmill, CPOs, and rubber-processing companies, and Pekanbaru is often said to be one of the cities with the highest money and banking rotation in Indonesia.
As Pekanbaru is prominently known as a major gateway for tourists from Singapore and Malaysia, the city has become a favourite stop-over for travellers before they go further inland to other regions of Sumatra Island such as Padang and Jambi. The Pasar Pusat (Central Market) is a food-trip destination and considered a household-goods trove. Pasar Bawah and Pasar Tengah, located near to the port and Siak riverbank, are especially known for the marketplace for buying and selling of Chinese goods like ceramics and carpets.
Around 127,000 foreign tourists arrived in Pekanbaru through its airport during 2018.
On the other hand, there are many developments of shopping malls. Additionally, there are a lot of housing areas have been developed since the 2000s surrounding the city, particularly in Panam area whereby the housing project along the road has been tremendously established and now becoming one of the most populous area in Pekanbaru even though it is located far from downtown.